The Ashen Avenger
by Valentin Laboy
Summary: Archaeologist Dr. June Moone. Wandered into the wrong cave. She opened something she shouldn't have. Releasing a metahuman more powerful than any we've encountered. June has freed the witch that history has tried to bury. What will happen as she and the weakened Enchantress fight for their lives against an entire army of murderous terrorists?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay guys, I hope you can forgive me for my extremely indecisive decision-making with this fanfic. I'm very impulsive and I update on whims, and I know I shouldn't. However, I have officially come up with a compelling story-line, something that I know you'll appreciate. Please, forgive me for doing update after update of this individual chapter. My ultimate goal is still the same. I want the Enchantress to be likeable. As such, I am retooling this entire fanfiction into a different story. **

**I promise you, this will be good, and it will be stable enough for you all to appreciate. And don't worry, for those of you that read the previous version of this fic, June herself will eventually have some powers of her own. **

**I will admit, the problem was that I couldn't create a good story with so many complex elements from the gate. I need time to develop June and the Enchantress before I delve into action. Don't worry, I won't drag it on for several updates. This will occur concurrently with _Winter Soldier._**

* * *

**Prologue**

Archaeologist, Dr. June Moone. Born August 12, 1994 to a single mother. One of the youngest prodigies in the field of archaeology, acquiring her doctoral degree when she was 18 years old. No one in the world had ever achieved her expertise in such a short time, especially in the field of the study of the old world. Her choice of study? Mesoamerica. Nowhere in the world interested her more than the forgotten world of the ancient Americas. Colonialism had taken such a toll on the ancient American cultures that there are comparably few sites and ancient works than compared to those of Europe.

However, all was not easy. When she was sixteen, she heard voices in her head. Her parents briefly pulled her from school to receive treatment, fearing schizophrenia, but she never recovered from her psychological condition. Fortunately for her, June would only hear a voice saying her name. Over and over like a glitching microphone revealing a singer lip syncing. She did have some periods where she would never hear it.

At 19, she suffered the most devastating loss in her life. Her mother was in a car crash, one that did not immediately kill her, but from which she could never recover from her wounds. As she lay dying, June made her a promise.

"I promise you. I will be everything you want me to be. I will make a discovery and name you for it," she said.

"You haven't anything to promise me," her mother said. "You made me proud every day. I don't want you to be what I want you to be. I want you to be you...I love you..."

Those were the last words they shared before June's mother finally succumbed to her injuries, leaving her alone in the world.

Now, at age 20, she set off on an expedition through the jungles of Peru.

Her partner was supposed to accompany her, but he ended up stuck back home, having lost his passport. For a couple of days, she warred with herself, having to choose between going to accomplish her life's dream or to stay behind because of a friend's foolish error. She chose the former, and traversed the jungles of Peru by herself. She wasn't idiotic enough to come unprepared, she still had her satellite phone in a worst case scenario and enough food and water in her bag to last for several days.

As she wandered the lush jungle, she came upon a cave, one that she'd never seen before. Not in pictures, not in historical texts, nowhere. It was the remnants of an ancient Incan temple, but it wasn't one that was famous, or maybe even been discovered.

"What are you? I've never seen in you before," she said at the cave's entrance. Right in front, there was an enormous hole, a shaft leading down. June hooked up climbing gear directly to the cave entrance wall and lowered herself in slowly but surely. With every few feet, June had to catch her breath and calm down. Climbing was not one of her strong suits.

Her fears became justified when her anchor gave way, causing her to fall through the hole.

The impacts against the walls of the hole and the floor knocked the wind out of June. It took her several moments to even move, and even longer to stand up. But miraculously, she was relatively unharmed, aside from cuts and scrapes. She oriented herself and got her bearings. The shaft led down to a large cavern, an empty one. There was almost nothing in the cavern. It was like an endless field, she couldn't see the walls of the cavern.

Much to her horror, she saw the remnants of skeletons, several of them nearby. She was not a mortician, but she could tell that some of these people had been here for decades. Some of them had visibly broken bones, and a couple of them had their skulls cracked open. Some of the skeletons looked fresher, some of them with traces of flesh still on their bones. The most horrifying ones for June to see were the skeletons that had visibly broken spinal columns.

June hyperventilated in utter horror, realizing that she didn't stumble on a discovery. She fell right into a deathtrap. She backed up and kept backing up, screaming in sheer horror. She ended backing up into an altar, not realizing that she had knocked a totem-like doll to the ground. She only noticed it when she heard maniacal laughter echoing through the cavern.

_"EH, HA HA HA HA HA!" _

A large trail of ominous smoke emerged around June, pushing away the skeletons. The smoke collected in one single place, until it gathered to make the human woman. Or rather, something that resembled a human. The creature resembled June herself, down to her body's proportions, her likeness, and her shape.

However, June was of golden pale clear skin, with beautiful blue eyes, and naturally light brown hair that extended to her mid-back.

The female creature was of light pale skin covered with black patches of ash and tribal tattoos all over her skin, glowing orange eyes, and pitch-black messy hair that extended to her thighs. She was also wearing beaded chains and a bikini made from tiny chains as well. Adding her to her ominous presence was an aura of ash complemented with floating embers.

It moved in a feral crawl, inching its way toward June ever so slightly. She could only stand there, paralyzed, her face blank of any emotion. She only stood there, trapped in her own body as the feminine creature approached her little by little. As it came closer, it stood upright, walking in a sultry position. With a slight smile on its face, it placed its face right in front of June's. One second later, and the creature dissolved into ripples and flowed into June's body.

It was only then that she finally reacted. She reached for her mouth and her nose, vainly attempting to keep the creature outside of her body. She fell to the ground, writhing, clawing at herself, desperately wanting the creature out of her body.

_"There is no point in struggling," _it said.

"You...you're the voice I was hearing," June muttered in utter shock.

_"I am, my dear. I have waited so long for someone like yourself to come and free me from my prison."_

"You're the one who tormented me, made me believe I was crazy."

_"Forgive me, my dear. You are the only one with whom I am compatible."_

"You're just in my head. You're just a hallucination, a figment of my mind trying to process this," June stammered.

_"I am not a figment of your mind. Your mind is quite intact."_

"None of this is real. None of this is real, June."

_"If you want evidence, say my name. Enchantress." _The voice goaded and goaded June, breaking her resistance more and more until she finally relented to what she thought were hallucinations.

"Enchantress..."

The transformation was slow. First, Enchantress's aura of ash and embers engulfed June. Then, her skin turn pale, and areas of her skin darkened with ash. In a cloud of ash and ripples, the rest of June's body and clothes changed to the witch. The witch stood up slowly, walking around, and summoning small balls of magic using June's body. She could only watch as her body was used without her own input.

_"Do you still believe I am a figment of your mind?"_

* * *

June awakened in her apartment back in New York City. All of her stuff was there, her bag, her satellite phone, her previously broken camera... and the pajamas she was wearing the night before she left. She looked around her apartment, a mixture of relief and confusion creeping its way inside of her. Slowly. Like a dripping bucket with endless water dripping itself into a room sealed room. Drip. Drip. Drip.

With a growing sense of trepidation, she stood up from her bed. Was everything that happened to her nothing more than a dream? Could it have been? It felt so real to June. She didn't remember falling asleep or anything of the sort. She walked around her apartment, ensuring that her door was still locked, that her windows were still intact, and that all of her things were in the right place.

She went to the bathroom to splash some water on her face, hoping to wash away the pain of the nightmare that she endured. She looked at herself in the mirror. There were no injuries on her face, no cuts, scrapes, or bruises consistent with falling down a hole in the middle of a cave in the Peruvian jungle. She washed off the stress born of the nightmare. When she saw her reflection once more, she realized that it wasn't imitating her movements. It stared at her, standing still with a creepy mischievous smile on her face. June backed up until she fell headfirst into the tub.

Except that she didn't. She fell into a pair of arms. June instinctively sought out the face of her catcher. It was the creature, the Enchantress.

"Just a dream. Just a dream," June muttered to herself.

_"Darling. If this were a dream, would this hurt?" _Enchantress said, pinching June's shoulder.

June still refused to believe that this was real. She stood up and ran to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen. She dug out the basket full of medicine bottles, spilling everything onto the floor. She frantically dug around for her medication designed to help with her auditory hallucinations. She finally found it and spilled all of the remaining pills onto the counter, frantically panicking and hyperventilating. She grabbed several pills and a bottle of water. Before she could take one pill, the pills floated from her hand.

The bottle for them floated, too. All but one of the pills returned to the bottle which was sealed shut with an invisible force. June followed the bottle as it floated right into the hands of Enchantress.

_"If you take that many pills simultaneously, you could die. Of course, you knew that."_

The lone pill left out of the bottle floated into June's hand, as did the water.

_"Go ahead, take the pill. I will still be here."_

She didn't take the pill.

* * *

"Last I remembered, I was in the cave, with you inside me," June said.

_"You remember correctly. What you don't remember is that when you called my name, I took control of your body. I brought you here."_

"But if you were inside me, why are you out of me?"

_"I can leave my home whenever I want, just like you can. My problem is that I can only be away for so long until I must return. I also can only go a limited distance from my home. The more I use magic out of your body, the amount of time I have lessens."_

"How long do you have?"

_"Roughly three hours with no magic usage. There are ways of increasing that time."_

"How did you know to bring me here?"

_"Your driver's license."_

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you can teleport," June said quietly. The witch's response was to disappear in a flurry of ripples and ash, reappearing standing next to June, and then return to the chair just the same. "Okay. That's impressive."

_"Why are you still afraid?"_

"All of the skeletons. What were they all about?"

_"Others who found my resting place. Many of them found my prison, but none of them were compatible. Unfortunate souls who wandered into a cave they should never have found,"_ Enchantress said sympathetically. _"Dozens who died slowly and painfully because of a group determined to keep me hidden."_

"What do you mean?"

_"Millennia ago, when the history of your modern world was but a dream of a few, there came a monster. A nameless, formless monster that was determined to consume the Earth. They called it Hive. It was so powerful that I and many other beings of power worked to banish it from this plane of existence. A group sprung in the wake of this creature with the sole purpose of bringing it back to this world. This group would allow wanderers and stragglers to fall into the hole that led to my altar, and would ensure they could never escape."_

"Wait," June said in horror. "Are you telling me that the reason I fell into that hole was because someone _cut_ my rope?"

_"Yes. You were one of many who found my tomb, but you had something none of those other stragglers did. Compatibility."_

"What do you mean?"

_"I am immortal, I do not age and I am difficult to harm let alone kill. However, my various bodies are not immortal. I must change bodies once my current one ages and withers. I can sense compatible hosts. However, from my totem prison, I could only call to various compatible hosts over the years. Some people spent their entire lifetime hearing my voice."_

"So... your voice. You saying my name over the years. It was a call for help?"

_"It was. My last host... she was powerful, but alas she fell victim to the blade of a member of the group determined to bring back Hive. With her death, my powers were weakened, and I was vulnerable. They sealed me away, not possessing any weaponry with the power to kill me. And for thousands of years, I waited for a compatible host to find and free me as you did."_

"This group... the ones that sealed you away... how long until they realize that you escaped that hole?"

_"They probably already know. Whenever a stranger comes into the cave, they come to make sure that the person is dead. If not, they finish the job while the person is begging for their help, in the tragic belief that the person was there to help them."_

"Shit..." June said flatly.

* * *

A HYDRA agent named Michael Moore drew his gun and turned on his night vision goggles.

"Find anything sir?" asked one of his fellow agents. As Moore examined the cave, he found no fresh body of a young woman. Instead, he found the totem, broken on the ground.

"This is Moore. The totem is broken. She's free."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Boss, we have something!"

Moore walked over to the technician's station. A couple of days earlier, Moore discovered that the ashen witch was freed from her ancient prison. Now, they had to struggle to identify the woman who disappeared from the cavern. The only thing they had were some low-quality surveillance pictures of the area.

They had a primitive general description. Roughly 5'8", long light brown hair, slim build, pale skin. A description that matched millions of people across the world. They didn't even have a read on her nationality… maybe she was English, American, Australian, hell, maybe even South African.

They ran her face through every database they had, but they had nothing. This woman was never on S.H.I.E.L.D. or HYDRA's watchlists. That means it would take a few more days until they could discern the woman's identity.

"What is it? Tell me it's good news," Moore said angrily, casually knocking over another person's computer screen uncaringly.

"We don't have anything on the subject, _but_ I did some searching into any satellite phones in the area at the time, and I found something." A display popped up on the screen as the technician continued his explanation. "Look. A satellite phone was pinging in this area at around 1800 hours, right around the time the woman was here. But a few minutes later, that satellite phone appeared in New York City."

"What address?" he said, finally happy to hear good news after two days of nothing but dead ends. "If we get her now, while she's weak, we can save ourselves a fucking shitload of trouble."

"Getting it riiiight… now."

* * *

June stared intently at the candle on the dining room table. She concentrated all of her energy onto the unlit candle, getting a feel for the abilities Enchantress claimed that she had. She didn't know what powers she had, so she used a candle as a guinea pig. In her heart, she still had to ask herself if she truly had the capability to fight back. One of her biggest virtues in life was never to harm another soul, harming anyone went against everything she believed in.

"Do I even have abilities?"

"_Personality powers are the rule with my magic. Any host I take adapts my magic to fit their own personality. Take care, though, personality does not determine _all _of one's powers," _Enchantress explained within June.

"Well that's nice to know."

"_Think of the times in your life where you were at your most emotional. Do not just think of the event, feel it. Magic is not practical, it's emotional."_

The first thing that came to June's mind was her mother. Sorrow was the most prominent emotion in that moment, flowing into her like the Biblical flood. But she was also angry. Angry that the doctors couldn't save her… that _she _couldn't save her… that she died. Following the witch's advice, June let the sorrow and the rage flood her at once. She even let the love for her mother that kept her going every day in.

She closed her eyes and let everything in.

"_June. Open your eyes."_

Milky light emerged from her hands. It left an aura, a soft, beautiful haze, comforting. It created translucent beautiful white clouds between her hands. As June's power activated, her irises were pulsing white, too. Gathering her hands together, the light coalesced into a spherical shape, glowing brighter. The light had a distinctive, comforting hum.

"_You're a guardian," _said Enchantress. _"That power is designed to heal, strengthen, and protect."_

"What do you mean?" June asked. In the same instant, the milky light vanished.

"_That power, you can use it to make people stronger, to heal them of sickness and injury, and to protect them. As of yet, our powers are still primitive. You are learning quickly to access your abilities, but you have much to learn. With time, your powers will grow beyond anything you could ever imagine."_

"What other abilities may I develop?" June inquired, growing excited about the prospect of powers.

"_No telling. The default powers include healing and augmentation, but many of my homes have had various other abilities. Some developed parasitic powers, some could resurrect those who had been dead for millennia, some could transfer energy from one creature to another."_

"So, I just have to wait?"

"_Correct. If your next question refers to the length of time for these abilities to manifest, there is no set time. Most develop their unique powers by default. Some develop new powers as the years pass, others don't. Most don't develop new abilities, so much as developing new applications for their standard abilities."_

"If I'm a healer, that also probably means I have no real fighting powers, right?" June said with solemn realization.

"_Unfortunately, yes. But that is no problem. Leave any combat to me. Many of my homes have had no combat abilities, and it was no impedance."_

June's phone went off, ringing with her friend's ringtone.

"Oh man, I am so late for my lunch date with my friend," June said. She quickly gathered her things. Too quickly. So quickly that everything was slow around her. She didn't realize it until she stopped and felt the draft in the room from her excessive speed.

"Whoa. What just happened?"

"_Yet another ability that many defenders have. Enhanced speed is perfect for defensive purposes."_

"I get it, the faster I move the faster I can protect others. Push them out of the way, right?"

"_Yes, and for other reasons, too."_

June left the apartment building, and made her way to her Jeep, in normal speed. She quickly realized that normal speed felt very slow, like she was walking slowly, even though she was fully aware that she was moving at a relatively normal pace.

"Wow. I suddenly hate moving at a normal speed now."

"_Everyone like you said that."_

She met up with her best friend that she lost contact with for a few years, Akiko Yamashiro, or just Kiko. They met when June was in her first semester in college and Kiko was in her semifinal semester. The two women grew close quickly, but lost contact for a few years after Kiko's husband died in a housefire. They reunited by chance in New York City a few years afterwards.

"You're late, again," Kiko said. While her name was fully Japanese, and had the looks and height to match, Yama spoke in an American accent in English. Yama told June that she had a Kyoto accent… or dialect… or something of the sort when she spoke Japanese.

"Sorry, lost track of time."

"I would ask if you were jet lagged, but that doesn't happen when you travel north and south," Yama said with a smile. "How was your trip?"

"Ummmm… Fun…" June said flatly.

"That's it? You go on your first trip to South America and it's just _fun_?"

"Well, let's just say… I found something," June said.

"Ooooh, what?"

June told Kiko a very abridged and inaccurate version of the events that led her to the Enchantress. She told her that she found a cave out in the jungle near Cusco, one that was hard to find. She left out the part where she fell into the cave, hurting herself badly, and obviously left out the part where she bonded with an ashen sorceress.

"Wow… I really wish that I'd been there," Kiko said.

"So do I," June said.

While the conversation was light-hearted and jovial, there was still an aura of sorrow between the two women. It was tangible enough that June felt the sorrowful aura, but suppressed it to keep her friend in a good state of mind. The last thing she wanted was to resurrect the pain of Kiko's horrifying loss.

After two hours, the women returned to June's apartment. When they arrived, Kiko went into the building first, having a key of her own to the apartment. June stayed outside, packing up some of the leftovers in the trunk to bring inside.

"_I like her,"_ the witch told June, much to her quiet internal joy.

* * *

June shot awake from a nightmare at 3 in the morning.

"_You poor thing,"_ Enchantress said playfully. _"Shall I help you sleep?"_

"That's the last thing I need," June muttered. She got up and went straight for the kitchen. She thought about using a small flashlight, but the full moon provided enough light. Whenever she had nightmares, there was one thing she would consume to ease her mind: hot chocolate. It could have been the hottest day of the year, and it wouldn't make a difference, she would still have her hot chocolate to ease her mind from a nightmare.

"_Of all things for you to drink after a nightmare,"_ the witch said, noticeably holding back laughter.

As June sat in her chair, she relaxed looking at the beautiful moon. She took the time to realize how connected she was with it. Her mother claimed, and June confirmed that she was born on a full moon, her last name was Moone, and now a physical goddess inhabited her body whose overall theme was the moon.

She observed the moon and enjoyed her drink when she felt a strange sensation in her chest. She looked down to find an ethereal gray arm protruding from her chest. For a moment, she believed it was a distant remnant of a dream.

"I'd be very careful if I were you," said a distorted electronic voice. "If I here one word come out of your mouth…well, I don't need to spell it out do I? To either of you? Nod if you understand."

A paralyzed June lightly nodded her head.

"And what about you?" he said. June looked around and saw Enchantress standing nearby, ready to fight whoever was behind June. However, she restrained herself, not believing that she could get the assassin's phased arm out of June's body before he solidified it. Neither woman knew nor wanted to know the result of said action.

"_I understand."_

"Get back inside her," ordered the assassin. After Enchantress acquiesced at June's silent insistence, the assassin said, "Now we are going to go for a walk."

June stood up. Her heart was racing, sweat pouring down the side of her face, her hands and body trembling. She cried tears of horror, her breathing pulsing and quaking.

"All you have to do is listen to me and nothing bad will happen to you," the assassin said. "I don't want to kill you. Please don't do anything to make me have to kill you."

"_June, when I say 'go', drop yourself to the left."_

She walked forward slow.

One step.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Now she was right outside the door to her apartment.

"_Go."_

At exactly the same second that she heard the voice in her head, June used her right arm and leg to shove herself down and from the floor away from the assassin's arm before he could solidify it. One moment later, Kiko came from nowhere, strobing the gray-clad assassin with the flashlight June kept in the kitchen.

The attack stunned the assassin enough for Kiko to grab June and run down the stairs and out the front door. Unfortunately, the assassin had recovered his eyesight and phased through the wall and dropped to the front to meet them. He waited for them right out in front of the building, where the entire area had lost power, leaving only the moonlight to illuminate the area.

June ordered Kiko to run. And then uttered, "Enchantress…"

The sight of June's transformation did nothing to deter the grey-clad ghost-like assassin, who June and Enchantress both determined from the shape and appearance was a woman. The gray-clad woman was standing firmly, but the ethereal images flashing around her showed barely visible phantoms of her in different positions, almost like a ghost. Realizing that the woman's intangibility also meant she would be able to avoid Enchantress's magic, the witch smiled and readied herself for a melee battle. The witch was excited for a good fight, though was no fool to underestimate her opponent.

The witch and the ghost charged at one another, neither backing down. The ghost made the first move, grazing the witch's face with her strong fist. The witch realized too late that this was a feint move, and the ghost punched her in the gut with impressive strength, enough to stun the witch briefly.

The witch recovered far more quickly than the ghost anticipated, opening up the chance for the witch to attack. A powerful jab from her fist swept under the ghost's feet, leaving her airborne and helpless. The witch followed up with blast of electrokinetic magic. Her powers had been weakened, but she still possessed them.

However, the ghost phased through her hand and her magic, though that didn't stop the impact with the ground from stunning her enough for the witch to quickly kick her away. The ghost disappeared in midair.

"Have you ever seen this before?" June said from within the witch, terrified of what was happening.

"_I haven't."_

The witch was a veteran of many battles over her long existence, battles dating back to prehistoric times, to before even the peninsula that was called Europe rose to power. She existed as far back as before the ancient pyramids of Giza were constructed, back when Egypt was only consisting of the River Nile. Invisibility and intangibility were among the many powers she had come into conflict with, but this was different. The witch sensed no magical force at play, yet this woman had incredible abilities.

The ghost reappeared in front of the witch, throwing a punch aimed at her face. Enchantress managed to avoid it just in time and counterattack with a forceful kick. This time, the ghost phased through Enchantress's body, avoiding the kick, and emerging behind her.

The witch aimed another incredibly strong punch charged with electrical power at her helmet. The ghost caught the witch's entire arm in her left hand, and then used her right hand to phase into Enchantress's chest. The witch screamed in horror, realizing that the ghost had known her weakness. It was then that she realized that this was a member of the group dedicated to keeping her prisoner.

The assassin ripped the witch's heart from her body. She readied herself for her death, but expressed great sorrow to June, realizing that this meant that she would also die. The witch hated herself for not seeing this ahead of time, that the ghost would probably do that.

"Bring back June, or I will crush this," the ghost ordered.

"Just do it! Please!" June begged.

Knowing she had no other choice if she wanted herself and/or June to live, she muttered, _"Enchantress…"_

"Are we going to have any more problems?" the ghostly assassin asked, with ominous serenity.

"No," June uttered.

The ghost recoiled, holding her arm in pain, and then was knocked to the ground.

It was Kiko, she was back, wielding a crowbar. She knocked the witch's heart from the assassin's hand and knocked her down with multiple strikes of the crowbar to the ghost's head. She grabbed Enchantress's heart and June and brought them both to June's car.

"I thought I told you to run away," June said, returning the Enchantress's heart.

"I did. I ran away back into the apartment to get back the car key. Then I saw that you were on the ropes and found a crowbar. You didn't think I'd actually leave you, did you?"

"Thank you," June quietly said, nearly crying.


	3. Chapter 3

**EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! SPOILERS FOR **_**CAPTAIN MARVEL **_**INCOMING! READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL. THIS CHAPTER AND ALL LATER CHAPTERS WILL HEAVILY FEATURE CHARACTERS AND RETELL EVENTS FROM THE RECENTLY RELEASED FILM. THE SPOILERS WILL BE RELATIVELY MINIMAL IN THIS CHAPTER, BUT THEY WILL BECOME MUCH MORE MAJOR IN THE COMING CHAPTERS.**

**DO NOT READ ONWARD UNLESS YOU WISH FOR SPOILERS.**

**And on a more low-key note, this is taking place in August of 2014, right after June's 20****th**** birthday.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"How did you let the same girl catch you off guard twice?" asked a contained, but highly irate Moore.

"I didn't think she was a threat. I underestimated her," said the gray-clad woman.

"Starr… S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't send you here because you make excuses. They sent you here because you give results," Moore said with poison in his voice. Agent Ava Starr was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. with some of the greatest success among the metahumans in the ranks of the organization.

S.H.I.E.L.D. truthfully was hardly anything more than an alternate name for HYDRA. The greatest intelligence apparatus in the world served no more than a nest for the parasite that was HYDRA to grow. But not all within S.H.I.E.L.D. were aware of this fact, Ava Starr included.

"I wasn't making any excuses," Ava claimed.

"Good. Your résumé speaks for itself. I expect nothing less than success with this mission."

"Locate the pair, and I'll add one more success to my résumé," Ava said dryly, not enthusiastic about her mission. She wasn't enthusiastic about any of them truth be told. But she did so anyways, vainly hoping that they could help cure her terminal condition.

When she was a child, her father Elihas Starr was discredited by scientist Hank Pym during his S.H.I.E.L.D. days. Desperate to restore his good name, he created an unstable quantum tunnel. He ordered Ava and her mother Catherine to run, but Ava didn't want her father to be alone. The tunnel exploded, killing Elihas and Catherine, but leaving young Ava in a perpetual state of pain and phasing in and out of the physical plane.

S.H.I.E.L.D. saw an opportunity to create a weapon. They gave her a suit and all the equipment she needed to control her phasing and turned Ava into a masterful stealth operative. In exchange, they were going to find a cure for her.

As of right now, the only thing they had that was even close to a cure was a chamber built with a similar mechanism to her suit, designed to help dampen the pain of her condition and to slow her quantum decay.

* * *

Kiko brought June to a derelict-looking cabin in the woods. She brought her to a secret surveillance room hidden within the basement, where she had cameras all over the place, and a fully functional bed and bathroom. The sight of the surveillance and everything else in the cabin left June speechless.

She thought she knew who Kiko was but realized very quickly that she really didn't.

"You want to start explaining why you turned into a succubus-looking thing?" Kiko asked.

"It's a long story," June muttered.

"Not long enough for you not to tell me. Maybe I'll start it. I'm guessing it has to do with Peru?" Kiko said flatly.

"Yes, but it starts far earlier. When I was sixteen, I left school to receive treatment for auditory hallucinations. I thought I had schizophrenia. Medication was minimally helpful, but I was in good enough shape to continue school. I never recovered from it," June explained. "When I went to Peru, I went into that cave. I fell into a large hole and there was nothing but human skeletons at the bottom. I panicked, and I ran into an altar of some kind. I knocked this doll off of it…"

"And out of it came that… thing?"

"She's a witch, and the title she has is Enchantress," June said. "If I specifically invoke her name, I shift into her, and the same goes the other way around."

"But how does that explain why those people are after you?"

"To shorten an even longer story, the witch was sealed away because she was a threat to a group that wanted to resurrect a horrifying monster. Thousands of years ago, a monster was banished from this world, by the witch, and by other magic users. The group that attacked us were descendants of the group that coalesced specifically to bring it back."

"This group was guarding that hole for all these years?" Kiko speculated.

"Yes. Rather than constantly guiding people away from it, they let people wander in, and would throw them to their deaths. They did that with me, they cut my climbing rope and let me fall. It worked, but they didn't realize that I was compatible with the witch," June said.

"Compatible?"

June explained further. "The witch needs a host in order to live in our world. When she was imprisoned, she had no problem reaching out to potentially viable hosts, but none of them ever wandered into the cave, until I came along."

"And now that the witch is free, this group is after you?" Kiko asked.

"Yes. They know that this is the best time to come after us, because she's weak and my new abilities are underdeveloped," June explained.

"Get you while you're weak, clever move," Kiko said.

"_I should not have been so arrogant. I should have known that I would not win against a person with her abilities as I am now. I need more time to regain my powers and my strength. I enjoy fighting far too much for my own good. For yours, too." _

"It's okay," June reassured her mentally. "You've been in a doll for thousands of years without a physical body and your magic's drained. You won't be in the best position to fight very well, and that's fine. We just need to take this slower, and at least now we know what she's capable of. And I'm not gonna give you any flak for enjoying a fight, even if I'm not exactly a fan of it either."

"_I appreciate the support, but I nearly killed us both."_

June stopped speaking, knowing that she wouldn't be able to pull Enchantress from her self blame. She returned her focus to Kiko, asking her the obvious question about why she had all of the surveillance equipment.

"I have my reasons for this," she answered vaguely.

"Care to explain? Cause I just did a lot of it," June said.

"If I told you, you'd run from me the first chance you got," Kiko responded.

June was tempted to keep on prodding, but she ultimately didn't.

* * *

June and Enchantress trained together with their powers and their ability to fight. Enchantress practiced first. The bond between the two had grown enough that Enchantress could leave June's body and go a considerable distance away.

It had been three days since the trio of women went into hiding. June fully decided that it was better if she didn't ask Kiko any questions about how she knew all of the things she did about hiding from a criminal organization.

June tossed rocks into the air as targets for the witch's magic, rocks large enough that she needed two hands to throw them.

The first large rock hovered in the air for a few moments before shattering in flames from within. Another stone was sliced into pieces with highly concentrated air current beams. Another froze and shattered against the ground. The last one was hit with a strike of small lightning that scorched its surface, though because is not very effective against rocks, it didn't do much more.

The witch switched between the various applications of her elemental powers, smiling as she destroyed the various rocks, even laughing gleefully with every rock she wrecked. Normally, she'd need to be ripping apart evildoers in spades to elicit a joyful reaction, but this would suffice for the time being. She couldn't wait for a rematch against Ava, and she especially couldn't wait to get back to being a one-woman army. This was not something she indicated to the soft-hearted June.

When it was June's turn to practice, the witch used her fire power to heavily burn a small plant, though left it alive. June focused on the love she had for her late mother, and for everyone in her life. For her, it was hard to focus on anything else, because her mind never allowed her to stay angry, not even with her most bitter bully in school, who had made it a personal mission to get a violent reaction from June.

When she was a teenager, she lost one of her best friends because of faulty advice from her mother. She spent the whole day after realizing the mistake too late practicing a complete speech of hatred and anger for her mother.

"Hey baby," her mother called out when she came home. "I'm home."

"Hey mama," June said, having completely forgotten her speech, and her anger.

That was who June was, a person who couldn't hold onto anger or hatred, at least not for long. It was far easier for her to just love and care about others than to hate them.

The milky light from her hands restored life to the plant, making it seem like the plant never felt the heat of a flame.

As the training continued, Enchantress would conjure wounds on various increasingly larger plants, like small brush, to a bush, and finally a tree. June was a natural, healing small burns on tree bark to restoring a freshly cut-down tree.

There was a noticeable weakness, however: June could only heal a single target at once.

"_You're a natural-born healer. Every healer that I have had was also a master of augmentation."_

"What do you mean by that?"

"_You can make those around you stronger for a short while. They can become physically stronger, more resilient to injury, immunity to poisons and magic."_

"How can I test that?" June wondered aloud.

"On me," Kiko said, volunteering herself. "Look at this large rock here. I can't hope to pick it up, even if I am in good shape. Maybe you can test your power on me."

"Are you sure?"

"_There is no risk involved in augmenting strength,"_ Enchantress reassured.

"I can do this, June."

She relented. Kiko knelt and gripped the large stone with her bare palms. June channeled her power and wished for Kiko to become stronger. She quickly discovered that she could channel the same love she used for her healing power to fuel her supportive powers. The milky light from her hands entered Kiko's body, causing her irises to turn white and her skin have small vein-like formations throughout her body.

Kiko's body was flooded with magic, she felt a surge of power growing inside of her. It flooded every cell in her body. When she lifted the stone, it was like she was lifting an enormous feather, she lifted it with little effort and tossed it over ten feet away.

"_You're incredible," _Enchantress said in complete awe. _"Even the most natural of supporters in my time have never learned this quickly."_

Kiko continued to have fun with her rush of pure strength, using her bare fists to break the rock to pieces, at least until she felt the magic wear off a few minutes afterwards.

"_I believe your powers will grow to far more than simple healing and support. You have incredible potential."_

"I hope so," June said.

Later in the day, the two women were driving across an open field at high noon. The sky was clear, no clouds, the idyllic countryside day. This, compared to the unnaturally fast and hectic world of cities and survival from criminal organizations, was a paradise.

"If only the world was as peaceful as this place," June muttered to herself. "But everything looks like heaven when you don't see it often."

The scenery flowed by like a river of greenery and peace. The serenity contrasted with the danger they were in. It was like the Biblical Eden. Beautiful, idyllic, peaceful. All three of which were a rare commodity in the modern world. Hell, it was rare even in the ancient world, cause even if one conflict in the world didn't affect the other side of the planet, there was still perpetual conflicts between peoples all across the world transcending oceans and continents.

Aboriginal peoples were in conflict with one another for many millennia, the people of Europe thought themselves superior with their grandiose tools of war, the people of the Orient, especially China, evermore longing for conquer and expansion.

June silently wondered if there was ever an exception to this. Was there a world free of internal conflict, maybe even external conflict? June didn't just wonder, she quietly hoped for it. Hoped that peace and security and freedom could exist all at once. Freedom almost seemed to necessitate the absence of security which caused loss of peace. Peace apparently needed security to crack down on freedom.

Was it just the nature of living things to be in conflict? Or was that just the jaded perspective of humans?

A streak of light appeared in the sky alongside a powerful sonic boom. The meteor reached down from the heavens, coming closer and closer to the ground. Except… the meteor had a visibly clear windshield, and an occupant. Kiko slammed the brakes on the car, and the two women watched as the object crashed half-a-mile in the field.

Kiko and June looked at one another briefly. She drove the car to investigate the crashed object. The terrain was flat enough that the old car had no problem driving across the unpaved ground.

The object was some kind of space craft, one that was definitely not from Earth. The women opened the cockpit, and out staggered someone who was heavily injured, with a gaping hole in the side of his chest, with noticeably blue blood coming from his visibly mangled lung and ribs. His breathing was ragged, and he stumbled, mumbling incoherently, holding a bag.

June felt a huge surge of intense discomfort throughout her body. It flooded every cell in her body, putting her into equal agony with the space man. The pain came with one intuitive instinct: to heal.

The man collapsed, drawing his dying breaths. June instinctively knelt next to him, healing him of his injuries. It took considerable concentration and effort, far more than it took for her to heal the various trees that Enchantress damaged. She powered through the strain, not wanting this person to lose his life because of her incompetence, and also to alleviate her own internal pain.

While the very human-like space man was healed, the effects of his injuries still lingered, and he fell unconscious in short order.

As the three left the scene, various parties, including S.H.I.E.L.D. were en route to the scene as well. They left just in time to avoid meeting the other agents.


	4. Chapter 4

**This will be a quiet chapter, not a lot of gratuitous violent action. There will be action that develops a relationship between two characters, nonviolent action.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

June and Kiko brought the space man back to the safe house. They removed his odd green and black uniform to make sure that he had no further injuries. The uniform had a unique star-like insignia on the area over the heart… at least, if the space-man's anatomy was similar to a human.

The space man had more injuries that altogether took June more than a minute, and a whole lot of physical strain to heal. There wasn't anything she could do about the healed scars on his body from wounds long sustained over what June could assume was a long tenure as a warrior.

She had to resist the urge to ogle him for his muscular frame, and his rather attractive face. He bore the appearance of a man in his forties and the firm body structure of a man who never lost the strength of his twenties. June had to keep pulling herself out of her gazing of his toned body.

Once the unconscious space man was healed, Kiko dressed him in the largest sweatpants she had on hand and chained him to the bed and brought June to the surveillance room.

"What in the hell just happened?" Kiko said.

"Ummmm… we found an alien that happens to look human and bleed red?" June said sheepishly.

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious," Kiko said sarcastically.

"What the hell was he babbling?" June asked rhetorically.

"Don't know. But I think we both know that he wasn't talking about anything on _this _planet, or even anything we could understand," Kiko muttered.

"Begs the question about why he came here."

The two women resigned to waiting until the man awakened to obtain the information necessary.

* * *

Agent Moore sat in his main information room looking over all the various monitors. No sign of Moone. None. He quietly admitted to himself that whoever was helping her was very clever at hiding. Not many people could spend 72 consecutive hours without somehow finding their way in front of a public camera.

He looked at some of the files on the witch that June freed. The last time she was free was over three thousand years earlier. Apparently, given the perfect host and enough powers, she can become a one-woman army. Nigh-unstoppable unless facing another master of mystical arts, and even then, there was no guarantee unless the host was killed.

He quietly hoped that it wasn't too late to stop the witch from gaining back her former powers because there were few beings left in the world that could hope to stand against the dark witch. If they were too late, then there was little hope of sealing her away or killing her, because she would be more than ready for the ambush tactic while separated from her host.

Moore took his attention away from the monitors and did what did best, take apart and reassemble a firearm. He did it with a mechanical precision honed over twenty years of being a member of HYDRA. He was offered a place in S.H.I.E.L.D., but he considered himself a terrible liar. It was much easier for him to simply do the dirty work than to pretend he was cleaning up after the dirty work.

He took apart his personal favorite weapon, a Desert Eagle. No one survives shots from this weapon when they hit. No one. There was always something magical to Moore about carrying the Grim Reaper of handguns in his holster. He felt strong and powerful.

He took the weapon apart and cleaned it up. He slowly put it back together as he remembered his very first kill with this weapon.

It was over fifteen years ago, on a mission of Taipei. He was a member of HYDRA, but he was also a contract killer. He worked for HYDRA, but also for good money. He was hired to murder an eccentric American billionaire, or at least that was what he wanted the world to see. In reality, he was the mastermind of a nine-year billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, robbing many Peters to pay many other Pauls.

When the scheme broke, he bolted. He took refuge in Taiwan. Not long after, Moore was hired to murder him. Within a week, he was in Taipei. He snuck through the compound, murdering guards with a ghostly silence. One by one, each guard fell to a stranglehold and a knife to the throat.

Once all of his guard were murdered, or otherwise neutralized, he found his target. He fit all the stereotypes of a malicious money man: fat, hideous, and surrounded by whores. Quietly, Moore quietly led each whore into the bathroom, threatening to murder them if they didn't comply. Once they were all gone, he locked them in the bathroom and turned his attention to the billionaire.

He woke him up with a startle and a Desert Eagle in his face. The billionaire begged for his life to no avail. He called to his dead guards to come save him. He got on his swollen fat-filled knees and begged for his life.

"Sorry, nothing personal," Moore said dryly. He activated the sound-cancelling feature of his comms and squeezed the trigger.

The discharge echoed through the entire mansion, resonating like a small nuclear blast. The whores in the bathroom held their ears in pain from the loudness and intensity of the shot. But those whores were lucky to have nothing but pain in their ears. Very lucky. Even the guards had it lucky, because they had intact bodies.

The billionaire? Not so much. With one squeeze of the Desert Eagle's trigger, his head literally exploded. Bone fragments shot all over the place, brain matter flying everywhere, blood splattering all around him. His corpse fell to the floor, pieces of his brain and brain stem and neck vertebrate jutted out against the wooden floors.

As Moore gazed over the remnants of his target, he felt something. A surge of pleasure, a fresh feeling of being high. It was like taking a breath of fresh, clean air. He found what he didn't know what he was looking for: his favorite method of killing. Nothing satisfied him more than to see his target's head explode from the power of his Desert Eagle.

One of Moore's underlings came in with a file and a package just as he finished putting his weapon back together.

"What do you have for me, Peña?"

"Forensics finally finished their sweep of Moone's apartment. They found mostly Moone's prints, but they also found another set of prints belonging to an Akiko Yamashiro. She's a young woman, lost her husband in a fire. She left the United States right afterwards, went back to Japan. She lived there for a few years before she came back. Lives in New York. Has little family, and hardly any contact over electronics with anyone. From what we gather, she's really close with Dr. Moone. She doesn't seem like the kind of person who could be a threat."

"Have you checked her out?" Moore said.

"Yes. Neighbors say they haven't seen her in days," Peña said. "We both know what that means."

"Yep. Yamashiro is probably the one helping Moone," Moore concluded. He thought about her and wondered where Yamashiro got her skills from. Moore quietly complimented her for being able to evade them. It would make it all the more satisfying when they finally found and killed her.

"And something else, sir. An extraterrestrial craft crashed out in Maine," Peña stated.

"Do I look like I give a fuck about another little spacecraft in the middle of nowhere?" Moore asked angrily and sarcastically.

"This particular middle of nowhere had something interesting for us. A couple of somethings for that matter."

"Well, you've officially piqued my interest," Moore said, sitting up in his chair.

"We found this." He pulled out a strange pistol-shaped weapon. Its discharge produced a powerful blast that blew a hole in the nearby wall. "Thought it'd be useful against the witch."

"And what's the other 'something'?" Moore asked.

He dropped a file on Moore's desk. As he sifted through the files, a slight smile grew on his face.

"Nice job," he said softly.

* * *

Kiko examined the newcomer's blood under a microscope, his oddly blue blood. She discovered that his blood cells were blue, but that his blood plasma was remarkably similar to a human's. She questioned why his skin wasn't a noticeable shade of blue, unless it was, and his true skin color mixed with blue to produce a skin-tone akin to a human.

"Anything interesting about our new friend?" June asked in a cute voice.

"Other than the fact that you can't stop staring at him? Well…he's remarkably human-like," Kiko said. "And I mean, he has the same skeletal structure, his bones and his muscles are all very similar to ours."

"What are the odds of an extraterrestrial life form looking just like a human on a completely different planet?" June said.

"Ten years ago, I would have said that it wasn't possible. But ever since that portal opened over New York last year, I'm not sure," Kiko said.

June dug around the stranger's bag, finding very strange devices. She carefully put each one on the desk nearby, not wanting to risk that they go off and end up killing her or Kiko or the stranger. One particular device, actually weapon, caught her attention. It looked like an ornate bow with an arrow-like pointer at its end, and a grip on the left side right before the weapon's end. There was also a goggle-like device attached to it.

As Kiko and June examined everything, the stranger began to awaken, though they were too distracted to realize it until they heard the restraint break. The stranger fell from the bed.

Once she got over the initial surprise of how easily he broke free from the restraint, June said, "Take it easy, we're not gonna hurt you." When she attempted to kneel in front of him to help him, he responded with a push that sent her flying into the back wall. Not enough to hurt her, thankfully.

The disoriented stranger attempted to run out of the room, only for Kiko to catch up with him. The two engaged in a one-sided fight, with the stranger trying to get the drop on Kiko. June helped, strengthening Kiko to the point where she could physically restrain the superhumanly strong stranger.

"Calm down, calm down," June said tenderly. "We're not going to hurt you."

The golden-eyed stranger calmed down and stopped resisting Kiko's grip.

"You can understand me?" June said.

"Yes," said the stranger. "I'm on Earth, right? This isn't my first time here."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Yon-Rogg."

"I'm June. This is my friend, Kiko," June said. "Where do you come from?"

"Hala. Capital world of the Kree empire." After a few seconds, he quickly realized that these women had no idea what he was referring to. "The Kree are my people, and a part of a powerful empire across the galaxy. Except, I very recently learned that my people are as cold as the vacuum of space, even to its own citizens."

"I would ask what you mean, but I'm not interested in overwhelming myself again," June said, sitting down. At June's visual gesture, Kiko let go of Yon-Rogg, though she refused to let her guard down.

"_Be wary of this individual. Technology in this world cannot harm me, but I believe his weaponry can."_

"How did you heal me? My injuries were fatal, and this world doesn't have technology advanced enough to save me," Yon-Rogg inquired. June answered his question by manifesting milky light from her hands. "So, you're a sorceress. I've never seen sorcery in this form before."

"_Sorcery can be a trained skill. Anybody can learn it. However, the magic manifestation is different for learned sorcerers than with me."_

"I'm not a learned sorceress, I was granted these abilities. Very recently," June said.

"Thank you. Both of you. I'm lucky to have found you."

"I don't think so," Kiko said. "You couldn't have picked a worse time or place or people."

"Yeah. The reason I have powers is also the reason were in the basement of a derelict house," June said. The reason that she had powers left her body and manifested silently right next to Yon-Rogg, startling him.

"Whoa!" he interjected.

"_I am Enchantress. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,"_ she said reaching a helping hand out to Yon-Rogg, a hand that he hesitantly accepted. She shook his hand with noticeable strength.

"Wow, you have a lot of strength in those lanky arms of yours," Yon-Rogg commented.

"_My dear, you have not seen my true strength. I am still weak, regaining my strength."_

"Wait… are you and June related?" Yon-Rogg asked.

"_We are not siblings. I predate her birth by over 6,000 years. I have no true form, I gain the likeness of whomever I call my home. June found me sealed in my tomb and freed me. The group that sealed me away has been hunting us ever since."_

Yon-Rogg quietly put all the pieces of the puzzle together, that they were in hiding from this group. "Perhaps I could help you fight them."

"Okay. First, we don't know each other. Second, even if we did, you're far too weak to be of any use," Kiko said sharply.

"Okay, wait just a second," June said to Kiko. "No. We don't know each other. But we can't just jump to the darkest conclusion about one another. We should at least take the time to know one another better."

* * *

Enchantress left June's body to protect the safe house for the night. There were cameras everywhere, but it was more efficient for the witch to keep watch on her own for the night. Unlike the others, she didn't require sleep. Ever since the night Ava attacked and nearly had them on the ropes, Enchantress has had her senses in perpetual overdrive.

She felt Yon-Rogg awaken from his bed in the main cabin and walk out of the building before midnight. The witch teleported in front of him.

"_Why are you here? You should be down hiding," _she said formally.

"Can't sleep, and I don't like being trapped in a small set of rooms."

"_How are you feeling?"_

"Much better. June has got quite a nice powerset."

"_She is not the first prodigal healer I've come across. I have had many healers and supporters in my time. But I assume you're not here for small talk, something for which I have little patience, unless it's with June."_

"I know better than to waste a dark sorceress's time." He internally panicked when he realized that he misspoke and upon seeing Enchantress's enraged expression and a clenched fist. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. What I mean is that it's obvious you're not as soft as June is."

"_Smart conclusion."_

"Has she…has she seen it yet?"

"_No. My one battle in our as-of-yet brief tenure together, I lost swiftly. I'm stronger now than I was then, but she has no idea how much it pains and angers me to lose a battle. All I want is to have another battle to redeem myself." _The witch's deep booming voice echoed with unbridled bloodlust. _"I suppress it in June's presence. As of now, she only knows that I am a combatant, not that I seek to spill blood."_

"I can tell. I have been alive for a while myself. Not as long as you, but enough to recognize when someone wants to have a fight."

"_Are you offering yourself to spar with me?"_

"An old friend used to do it with me to alleviate stress. You and she aren't so different."

"_How so?"_

"Powerful and free. Unchained, unsuppressed, and fierce. And capable of killing instantly."

Enchantress smiled at his compliment. She held her palm in front of him, beckoning him to punch her hand and test his strength. Impressed with his natural Kree strength and satisfied that he was of combat-worthy strength, Enchantress summoned two mystical sabers, giving one to a confused Yon-Rogg.

"_Do you not know how to wield a sword?"_

"I prefer a broadsword," Yon-Rogg said. His sword shifted forms into a broadsword appropriately sized for him. Given the notable size difference between her saber and his broadsword, she summoned another one for herself.

"_Don't worry. The swords won't harm either of us," _Enchantress said playfully. Yon-Rogg smiled and held his broadsword in his right hand. The witch crossed her blades in front of her face, before adopting a feral crouch pose, animalistic in appearance.

She leapt forward crossing her blades and swiping downwards towards Yon-Rogg's body. He locked his broadsword with her sabers, deadlocking them together. Enchantress lowered one saber to let his blade slide down. She deflected his sword away and elbowed him in the back with a pow.

"_You doubt yourself, warrior."_

"I'm just out of practice," Yon-Rogg claimed to Enchantress's humor.

First swing. Second swing. Third swing. Fourth swing. All by Yon-Rogg.

The first swing was easily avoided, the broadsword cutting nothing but the air around the witch. The second and third were deflected off of her sabers. The final swing, a powerful backswing she caught in a blade lock.

She realized too late that it was a feign move, Yon-Rogg struck her with a forceful blow to her ribcage. Much to the witch's surprise, the Kree warrior's strength was enough to briefly knock the wind from her.

"_Perhaps I _was_ wrong about you."_ Her sabers and his broadsword vanished.

"What are you doing?"

"_I chose blades because I thought you were still recovering, still weak. I was wrong. You are strong enough to handle yourself in close combat."_

"Then let's dance," Yon-Rogg said with a brazen smile.

The two warriors sparred with one another in a friendly manner, none the wiser to a smiling June having been watching them since the start of their fight.


	5. Transferal to other platform

I have created an Archive of Our Own account under this same pen name. If you wish to continue this story, you must google AO3 ValentinLaboy. The structure of AO3 is a better fit for this fanfiction story. You will be pleased to know that I have many more chapters all ready for posting.

Thank you for those who chose to read this story on this website.


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